Another house of cards, thankfully just a rumour

Yet to come to terms with Monday's tragedy, residents of Lalita Park got an early morning shock on Wednesday, when rumours started doing the rounds that another building owned by Amritpal Singh Sachdeva was on the verge of collapse.

Scared for their lives, people living in the adjacent buildings ran for cover. "It happened around 7.30 am. One of our neighbours started banging on our door and asked us to run for our lives. He said the sealed house next to ours was about to collapse. I rushed out with my family to the camp," said Rohtash Rastogi, a resident of the area.

People took shelter in the nearby camp set up for the residents of the building that was sealed, and the nearby community centre. Many called up the police and asked the fire services for help.

"We thought this building, too, would crumble down. We were all scared for our lives and rushed to the community centre. We had to leave all our belongings behind," said Jagdish Sharma, another resident of the area.

It took some convincing on part of the local police and other agencies to make the residents return to their houses. They claimed it to be a rumour spread by some mischievous elements.

"We just saw many people rushing out of their houses. They said the building was falling down. We first checked if anything of that sort was actually happening. When we were sure it was a rumour, we asked them to go back to their houses," said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The residents, however, found it hard to believe. Obviously, once bitten, twice shy.